St. Landry democrat., 1887-10-29
AMERICA AS A MODEL.
Some Favorable Criticisms on the Con>fitu-
tional Centenary.

Some Favorable Criticisms on the Con>fitu-
tional Centenary.
When the experiment OF government
by the people was attempted in this
country the general opinion in England
was that it would prove but noisy pre-
lu0e to anarchy The characteristics
confidently predicted of democratic in
situations were instability, frivolity and
subservience to the gusts and vaciila-
tons of popular caprice. Experience
has discredited all such opinions and Ihe
most striking feature of our constllu-
tional system is now recognized to be its
conservatism. 1t is admitted to excel
in the very characteristic which used
to be claimed as the special merit of
monarchical and aristocratlc systems OF
government.
This recognition is very conspicuous
in English comment upon the recent
centenary of the adoption of the con-
stitution. Even such an ultra Tory Or
gan as the St. James Gazette describes our
system of government as the freest and
strongest, and certainly the most con-
seryative in the world" Discussing the
distinctions between State and Federal
powers, the independence of the execu-
tive department and the conservative ar
rangements which restrict the work of
constitutional development to the sober
second thought of the people, the Gazette
saws: Contrast this reverence for an
cient laws and excessive care for the sta
bility of the government of the republic
with the state of things under the English
monarchy-where the whim of single
chamber can work the most fundamental
changes in the course of a single session"
The tenor of this criticism is the more
interesting inasmuch as we have in this
country an Anglomaniac class of politi-
cal writers and agitators whose special
object of attack is the very conserva-
tism that foreign observers cannot but
admire. The violent effort made to con-
vert our civil service into bureaucracy
on the English model is only part Of
the Anglicizing scheme. A great
deal of heavy essay writing is
being done in favor of giving
the Presidents cabinet officers seats
in the House, so as to fuse the
legislative and executive departments of
government, and thus initiate the English
system as much as possible. In England,
where the disadvantages of intru sting
the executive powers to committee of
the Legislature are appreciated from
actual experience, our system of separat-
ing the executive and legislative depart
ments is regarded as the most admirable
feature of our constitution. In this re-
spect the st. James Gazette claims that we
have preserved in its integrity sound
constitutional provision, while England
has drifted into dangerous innovation.
1t says:
Take the familiar distinction our fathers
loved between the executive and legislative
powers. In America it holds good to-day while
in England it is forgotten as matter of
theory, and, as a matter of practice we
find that the Legislature has usurped
most of the functions of the executive and
that the executive has taken for itself all in
itiation in legislation. The string of questions
by which ministers are badgered and hampered
night after night effectively asserts the claim
Conservative America preserves the old and
wise distinction, while modern England has
forgotten it.
The strength of our constitution con-
sists in its careful distribution of powers
and it's exclusion of Federal authority
from the sphere of local government. The
stolid popular conservatism that stands
like massive dykes against frothing
waves of reform and turbulent currents
Of fanaticism guarantees the perpetuity
of our institutions
Prince Charles of Sweden is the hand